An Epistle to the Unconverted Reader

By Richard Baxter

To all the ignwant, carnal, and ungodly, “joho are lovers of pleasure more than God, and seek this world more than the life everlasting, and live after the flesh and not after the Spirit, these calls and cou7isels are directed, i?i hope of their conversion to God, and of their salvation,

“He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.”

Miserable Soul!

There is that life, and light, and love, in every “true believer,” but especially in every faithful Minister of Christ, which engageth them to long and labour for your salvation. Life is communicative and active; it maketh us sensible that faith is not a fantasy, nor true religion a stage play, nor our hopes of eternal happiness a dream. And, as we desire nothing more for ourselves than to have more of the holy life, which we have, alas! in so small a measure, so what is it we should more desire for others? With the eye of an infallible, though too weak, faith, we see the heaven which you neglect, and the blessed souls in glory with Christ, whose companions you might be for ever. We see the multitudes of souls in hell, who came thither in the same way that you are going, who are shut out of the glorious presence of God, and who arc now among those devils that deceived them, remembering that they had their “good things” here, and how they spent the day of their visitation, and how light they once set by God, by Christ, by heaven, by mercy, whilst mercy was an earnest solicitor for their hearts: and, with our bodily eyes, we see at the same time abundance of poor sinners living about us, as if there were no God, no Christ, no heaven, no hell, no judgment, no, nor any death to be expected; as if a man were but a master-beast to rule the rest, and feed upon and perish with them. And, if it were your own case, to see what souls do in heaven and hell, and at once to see how unbelievingly, carelessly, and senselessly most men live on earth, as if there were no such difference in another world, would it not seem a pitiful sight to you? If you had once seen the five brethren of Dives on earth, eating, drinking, laughing and merry, clothed, and faring daily with the best, and at the same time seen their brother’s soul in hell, begging in vain for a little ease, and wishing that one from the dead might go warn them, that they come not to that place of torment, would it not seem to you a pitiful sight? Would not pity have made you think, “Is there no way to open these gentlemen’s eyes? — no way to acquaint them what is become of their brother, and where Lazarus is, and whither they themselves are going? No one driveth or forccth them into hell, and will they go thither of themselves? And is there no way to stop them or keep them back?” Did you yourselves but see what we (believing God) see by faith, and at once behold the saints in heaven, the lost despairing souls in hell, and the senseless sensual sinners on earth, that yet will lay none of this to heart, surely it would make you wonder at the stupidity of mankind. Would you not say, O what a deceiver is the devil, that can thus lead on souls to their own destruction! O what a cheat is this transitory world, that can make men “so forget the world” where they must live for ever! O what an enemy is the flesh, that thus draweth down men’s souls from God! What a bedlam is this wicked world, where thousands are so busy, labouring to undo themselves and others, and gratifying the devil, against their God and Saviour, who would (five them everlastino blessed life!

And, as we have such a sight as this, by faith, to make us pity, so we have so much taste of the goodness of God, the sweetness of his ways, and the happiness of believers, as must needs make us wish that you had but once tried the same delights; it would turn the pleasure of sin into detestation. God knows, we desire nothing more for ourselves than the perfection and eternity of this holiness and happiness which we believe and taste. And should we not desire the same for you?

And, being thus moved with necessary pity, we ask of God what he would have us to do for your salvation. And he hath told us in Scripture, That the preaching of his gospel to acquaint you plainly with the truth, and earnestly and frequently entreat you to turn from the flesh and the world to God, by Jesus Christ, is the means with which his grace is ready to concur for your salvation, when obstinate resistance causeth the Holy Spirit to forsake the sinner, and leave him to himself to pursue his own counsels, lusts, and will.

In this hope we undertook the sacred ministry, and gave up ourselves to this great and most important work. In the great sense of our own unworthiness, but yet in a sense of our soul’s necessity, we were not such fools, at our first setting out, as not to know it must be a life of labour, self-denial, and patience, and that the devil would do his worst to hinder us, that all his instruments would be ready to serve him against our labours, and against your souls, Christ, our Captain, saved by patient conquest, and so must we save ourselves and you; and so must you save yourselves under Christ, if ever you be saved. It was no strange thing to Paul, that bonds and afflictions did every where attend hira; nor did he “account his life dear, that he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry committed to him by the Lord.” It was no strange thing to him to be forbidden to preach to the “Gentiles, that they might be saved,” by such as were “filling up the measure of their sins,” and were under God’s “utmost wrath” on earth. Devils and Pharisees, and most of those among whom they came, both high and low, were against the Apostles preaching the gospel, and yet they would not sacrilegiously and cruelly break their covenant with Christ, and perfidiously desert the souls of men; even as their Lord, for the love of souls, did call Peter Satan, that would have tempted him to save his life, instead of making it a sacrifice for our sins.

What, think you, should make us undertake a calling so contrary to our carnal ease and interest? Do we not know the way of ease and honour, wealth and pleasure, as well as others? And have we not flesh as well as others? Could we not be content that the cup of reproach, scorn, slander, poverty, and labour, might pass from us, if it were not for the will of God your salvation? Why should we love to be the lowest, and trodden down by maHgnant pride, and counted as the ofF-scouring of all things, and represented to rulers, whom we honour, as schismatics, disobedient, turbulent, unruly, by every church-usurper of whom we refuse to make a god? Why give we not over this preaching of the gospel at the will of Satan, who is for the everlasting “suffering of your souls,” under pretence of making us suffer? Is not all this that you may be converted and saved? If we be herein beside ourselves, it is for you. Could the words of the ignorant or proud have persuaded us, that either your wants or dangers are so inconsiderable, (or your other supplies and helps sufficient,) that our labours had been unnecessary to you, God knoweth, we should readily have obeyed the “silencing sort of pastors,” and have betaken us to some other land, whcie our service had been more necessary. Let shame be the hypocrite’s reward, who takes not the saving of souls and the pleasing of God for a sufficient reward, without ecclesiastical dignities, preferments, or worldly wealth.

I have told you our motives, I have told you our business, and the terms of our undertaking. It is God and you sinners that next must tell us, what our entertainment and success shall be. Shall it still be neglect and unthankful contempt, and turning away your ears and hearts, and saying, “We have somewhat else to mind?” Will you still be cheated by this deceitful world, and spend all your days in providing for the flesh, that must shortly be. rotting in a grave? Were you made for no better use than this? May we not bring you to some sober thoughts of your condition, and seriously to think one hour whither you are going? What! not one awakened look into the world where you must be for ever; not one heart-piercing thought of everlasting glory; not one heart -piercing thought of your Saviour’s love; not one tear for all your sinful lives! O, God forbid! Let not our labours be so despised. Let not your God, your Saviour, and your souls, be so light set by: O let there be no more profane persons among you, like Esau, who “for one morsel sold his birth-right!”

Poor sinners! we talk not to you as on a stage, in customary words, and as if talking were our business; we are in as good earnest with you as if we saw you murdering yourselves, and were persuading you to save yourselves. Can any man be in jest with you, who believeth God, who by faith foreseeth whither you arc going, and what you lose, and where the game of sin will end? It is little better to jest with you now in a pulpit, or in private, than to stand jesting over your departing souls, when at death you are breathing out your last.

Alas! with shame and grief we confess, we never speak to you of these things as their truth and weight deserve, nor with the skill and wisdom, the affection and fervency, that beseem men engaged in the saving of souls; but yet you may perceive that we are in earnest with you, for God is so. What else do we study for, labour for, suffer for, live for? Why else do we so much trouble ourselves, and trouble you, and anger them that would have made us silent? For my own part, I mil make my free confession to you, to my shame, that I never grow cold, and dull, and pitiless, to the souls of others, till I first grow too cold and careless of my own (unless when weakness or speculative studies cool rae, which I must confess they often do). We never cease pitying you, till we are growing too like you, and oft have need of pity ourselves.

When, through the mercy of my Lord, the prospect of the world of souls, to which I am going, hath any powerful operation on myself, O! then I could spend and be spent for others. No words are too earnest, no labour too great, no cost too dear; the frowns and wrath of malignant opposers of the preachino” of Christ’s gospel are nothing to me. But, when the world of spirits disappears, or my soul is clouded, and receiveth not the vital-illuminating influences of heaven, “I grow cold, first to myself, and then to others.”

Come, then, poor sinners, and help us, who are willing at any time to help you. As we first crave God’s help, so we next crave yours. Help us; for we cannot serve you against your wills, nor save you without your consent and help. God himself will not save you without you, and how shall we? We know that the devil is against us, and will do his utmost to hinder us, and so will all his ministers, by what names or titles soever difnified or distinofuished. But all this is nothing, if you will but take our parts; I mean, if you will take Christ’s part and your own, and will not be against yourselves. Men and devils cannot either help or hinder us in savhig you, as you may do yourselves: “If God and you be for us, who shall be against us?”

And “will you help us?” Give over striving against God and conscience; give over fighting against Christ and his Spirit; take part no more with the world and the flesh, which in your baptism you renounced; set your hearts on the message, which we bring; allow it your manlike, sober thought; search the Scriptures, and see whether the things vve speak of be so or not. We offer you nothing but what we have resolvedly chosen ourselves, and that after the most serious deliberation we can make. We have many times looked round about us, to know what is the happiness of man; and had we found better for ourselves, we had offered better to you. If the world would have served our turns, it would have served yours also, and we would not have troubled you with the talk of “another world;” but it will not, I am sure it will not, serve your turns and make you happy, nor shall you long make that self-deceiving shift with it as now ye do.

But, if ye will not think of these things, if ye will not use the reason of men, alas! what can we do to save your souls? O pity them, Lord, that they may pity themselves; have mercy on them, that they may have some mercy on themselves; help them, that they may help themselves and us. If you still refuse, will not your loss be more than ours? If we lose our labour, (which to ourselves we shall not,) if we lose our hopes of your salvation, what is this to your everlasting loss of salvation itself? And what are our sufferings for your sake, in comparison of your endless sufferings?

But, O! it is this that breaketh our hearts, that we leave you under more guilt than we found you; and, when we have spent our life and labour to save you, the impenitent souls must have their punishment increased for refusing these calls; and that it will be part of your hell to think for ever how madly you refused our counsel, and what pains, cost, and patience, were used to have saved you, and all in vain. It will be so, it must needs be so. Christ saith, “It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment,” than for the rejecters of his gospel-calls. The nature of the thing, and the nature of justice, certainly inform you it must be so.

O turn not our complaints to God against you! turn us not from beseeching you to be reconciled to God, to tell him you will not be reconciled; force

GO

US not to say, “that we earnestly invited you to the heavenly feast, and you would not come!” force us not to bear this witness against you: “Lord, we could have borne all our labour and sufferings for them much easier, if they would but have yielded to thy grace. But it was they themselves that broke our hearts, that lost our labour, that made us preach and entreat in vain: it was easier to preach without maintenance than without success. It was they that were worse to us than all the persecutors in the world. How oft would we have gathered them, but they would not, and are ungathered still!” How’ many holy, faithful ministers have I known, these eleven years past, who have lived in pining poverty and want, and hardly by charity got bread and clothing; and yet, if they could but have truly said, “Lord, the sermons which I preach privately, and in danger, have won many souls to thee,” it would have made their burden easy. But I tell thee, senseless and impenitent sinner, thou deniest God in thy heart; and thou, that deniest them thy conversion, which was the end of all their labours, hast dealt much more cruelly with them than they that denied the Levites bread.

Poor sinners! I know that I am speaking all this to those that are “dead in sin;” but it is a “death consisting” with a “natural life,” which hath a “capacity of spiritual life,” or else I would no more speak to you than to a stone.. And I Jvnow that you are blind to sin;” but it is a blindness consisting with a reasonable faculty, which is capable of spiritual illumination, or else I would no more persuade you than

I tlo a beast. And I know that you are in the fetters of “your own lusts:” your wills, your love, your hearts, are turned away from God, and strongly bewitched with the dreams and dalliances of the flesh and world; but your wills are not forced into this captivity: surely those wills may be changed, by God’s grace, when you clearly see sufficient reason to change them; else I would as soon preach, were I capable, to” devils and damned souls.’* Your case is not yet desperate; O make it not desperate! There is just the same hope of your salvation as there is of your conversion and perseverance, and no more. Without it there is no hope; and with it you are safe, and have no cause to doubt and fear. Heaven may yet be yours if you will. Nothing but your own wills, refusing Christ and a holy life, can keep you out: and shalt thou doit? shall hell be your own choice? and will you say you will not be saved?

O think better what you do! God’s terms arc reasonable; his words and ways are good and equal; Christ’s “yoke is easy, and his burden light,” and his commands are not grievous to any, but so far as blindness and a bad heart make them so. You have no true reason to be unwilling: God and conscience shall one day tell you, and all the world, that you have no reason for it. You may as wisely pretend reason to torment yourselves, as plead reason ao-ainst a true conversion unto God. Were I persuadinnyou not to kill yourselves, I would make no question but you would be persuaded; and yet must I be hopeless when I persuade you from everlastino- misery, and not to prefer the world and flesh “before your Saviour and your God,” and before a sure everlasting joy: God forbid!

Reader, I take it for a great mercy of God, that, before my head lies down in the dust, and I go to give up my account unto my Judge, I have this opportunity once more earnestly to bespeak thee for thy own salvation. I beg it of thee, as one that must shortly be called away and speak to thee no more till we come into our endless state, that thou wouldst but sometimes retire into thyself, and use the reason of a man, and look before thee whither thou art going, and look behind thee how thou hast lived, and what thou hast been doing in the world till now; and look within thee, what a case thy soul is in, and whether it be fit to enter upon eternity; and look above thee, what a heaven of glory thou dost neglect, and that thou hast God to be thine everlasting friend or enemy, as thou choosest and as thou livest, and that thou art always in his sight: Yea, and look below thee, and think where they are that die unconverted. And, when thou hast soberly thought of these things, then do as God and true reason shall direct thee. And is this an unreasonable request? I appeal to God, and to all wise men, and to thy own conscience, when it shall be awakened, if I speak against thee, or if all this be not for thy good; but, if it be not true and sure, then regard not what I say; if I speak not that message which God hath commanded his ministers to speak, then let it be refused as contemptuously as thou wilt. But, if I do but, in Christ’s name and stead, “beseech thee to be reconciled to God,” refuse it at thy peril. And, if God’s beseeching thee shall not prevail against thy sloth, against the desires of the flesh, asrainst the dust and shadows of the world, remember it, when, with fruitless cries and horror, thou art beseeching him too late.

I know, poor sinner, that lust and appetite have no reason; but I know thou hast reason thyself, which was given thee to overrule them; and that he that will not be a man, cannot be a saint nor happy man. I know thou livest in a tempting and wicked world, where things and persons wall be daily hindering thee: but I know that this is no more to a man that by faith sees heaven and hell before him, than a grain of sand to a kingdom, or a blast of wind to one that is fighting or flying for his life. O that thou didst but know the difference between that which the devil and sin will give thee, if thou wilt sell thy soul and heaven, and that which God hath promised and sworn to give thee, if thou wilt heartily give up thyself to him! I know thou mayest possibly fall into company, at least among some sots and drunkards, that will tell thee, “All this is but troublesome preciseness, and making more ado than needs;” but I know wdthal what that man deserveth, who will believe a fool before his Maker! for he can be no better than a miserable fool that will contradict and revile the word of God, even the word of grace that would save men’s souls.

And, alas! it is possible thou mayest hear some of the tribe of Levi, or rather of Cain, deriding this serious godliness as mere hypocrisy, and fanaticism, and self-conceit; as if you must be no better than the devil’s slaves, lest you be proud in thinking, that you are better than they; that is, you must go with them to hell, lest in heaven ye be proud hypocrites, for thinking yourselves happier than they.

It may be, they will tell you, that this talk of conversion is fitter for pagans and infidels to hear than for Christians and Protestants. But I will entreat thee, as before God, to answer these following questions, or to get them answered, and then judge whether it be they or we that would deceive thee; and whether as men use to talk against learning that have none themselves, such men prate against conversion and the “Spirit of God,” because they have no such thing themselves.

Q. 1. I pray ask them whether it be a puritan or fanatic opinion that men must die; and what all the pomp, wealth, and pleasure of the world will signify to a departing soul? Ask them, whether they will live on earth for ever, and their merry hours and lordly looks will have no end; and whether it be but the conceit of “hypocrites and schismatics,” that their carcass must be rotting in a “darksome grave?”

Q. 2. Ask them, whether they have not an immortal soul? and a longer life to live when this is ended?

Q. 3. Ask them, whether reason requires not every man to think more seriously of the place or state where he must be for ever, than of that where he must be for a little while, and whence he is posting day and night: and whether it be not wiser to lay up our treasure where we must stay, than where we must not stay, but daily look to be called away, and never more to be seen on earth?

Q. 4. Ask them, whether God should not be “loved with all your heart, and soul, and might;” and whether it be not the mark of an ungodly miscreant to be “a lover of pleasure more than God,” and a lover of this world above him, and whether we must not seek “first God’s kingdom and his righteousness,” and “labour most for the meat that never perisheth,” and “strive to enter in at the strait gate,” and “give all diligence to make our calling and election sure?”

Q. 5. Ask them, whether, without holiness, any shall see God, and whether the carnal mind is not enmity to God, and “to be spiritually minded is life and peace;” and whether, “if you live after the flesh,” you shall not die and be condemned, and they shall not live and be saved “that walk after the Spirit;” and whether any man be Christ’s that hath not his Spirit?

Q. 6. Ask them, whether any man hath “treasure in heaven” whose heart is not there; and whether this be not the difference between the wicked and the godly — that the first make “their bellies their god, and mind earthly things?” and are “enemies to the cross of Christ” (though perhaps not to his name); and the latter have “their conversation in heaven,” and, “being risen with Christ, do set their affections on thinfs above, and not on things that are on the earth,” to which they are as dead, “and their life is hid” (or out of sight) “with Christ in God, till Christ shall appear, and then they shall appear (even openly to all the world) with him in glory?”

Q. 7. Ask them whether it be credible or suitable to God’s word or working, that he, that will not give the fruits of the earth without their labour, nor feed and clothe them without themselves, will yet bring them to heaven without any care, desire, or labour of their own, when he hath bid them not care for the one, and called for the greatest diligence in the other? Yea, ask them, whether these be not the two first articles of all faith and religion, 1. “That God is?” 2. That “he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him?”

Q. 8. Ask them, yea, ask your eyes, your ears, your daily experience in the world, whether all or most that call themselves Christians, do in good earnest thus live to God in the Spirit, and “mortify the flesh with its affections and lusts, and seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness,” love him above all, and lay up their treasure and heart in heaven; or rather, whether most be not lovers of the world, and “lovers of pleasure more than God,” and live not to the flesh, and mind not most the things of the flesh? I mention not now the drunkards, the men, that live in pride, fulness, and idleness, and sport and trifle away their precious time; nor the filthy fornicator, nor the merciless oppressor, nor the malignant hater of a godly life, nor the perjured betrayers of men’s souls, and the gospel, or of their country’s good, nor such other men of seared consciences, whose misery none, but such as are blind and miserable, questions; it is not those only I am speaking of, but the common, worldly, fleshly, and ungodly ones.

Q. 9. Ask them, whether the name of a Christian will save any of these ungodly ones: and whether God will like men the better for lying, and calling themselves Christians, when indeed they are not? And, whether they dare preach to the people, that a Christian drunkard, or Christian fornicator, or Christian oppressor, or Christian worldling, needeth no conversion?

Q. 10. Ask them, whether they say not themselves that hypocrisy is a great aggravation to all other sins? And, whether God hath not made the hypocrites and unbelievers to be standards in hell? And, whether seeking to amuse God by a mock religion, doth make such false Christians better than the poor heathens and infidels, or much worse? And, whether he be not a hypocrite, that professeth to be a Christian and a servant of God, when he is not, nor will be? And, whether he that “knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not,” shall not have the sorest stripes or punishment?

Q. 11. Ask them, whether in their baptism, they did not renounce the flesh, the world, and the devil, and vow and deliver up themselves to God their Father, their Saviour, and their Sanctifier? And, whether all or most men perform this vow? And, whether a perjured “covenant-breaker” against God, is fitter for salvation than he that never was baptized?

Q. 12. Ask them, whether the holy nature of God be not so contrary to sin, as that it is biasphemy to say that lie will bring to heaven, and into the bosom of his eternal delights, an unholy and unrenewed soul?

Q. 13. Ask them, why it was that Christ came into the world; whether it was not “to save his people from their sins,” and “to destroy the works of the devil,” and to “purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works,” and to bring home strayed souls to God, and to be “the way to the Father?” And whether Christ will save that soul that is not converted by him, and cleansed from his sins? Or whether it be the dead image only of a crucified Jesus that is all their Saviour, while they will have no more of him?

Q. 14. Ask them why they believe, and were baptised into, the Holy Ghost? And, whether a man can enter into the Idngdom of heaven that is not born of the Spirit as well as of water? and that is not converted, and begins not the world as it were anew, in a teachable, tractable, newness of life, like a little child? And whether it be not a certain truth, that “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his?”

Q. 15. Ask them why Christ gave the world so many warnings of the damnable nature of the Pharisees* hypocrisy, if hypocritical Christians may be saved? And what were these Pharisees? They were the masters of the Jewish church, the rabbis, that must have high places, high tithes, ceremonies, and formal garments, and must be reverenced of all; that gave God lip-service, without the heart, and made void his commands, and worshipped him in vain, “teaching for doctrine the commandments of men,” and strictly tithed mint and cummin, while love, mercy, and justice were passed by; who worshipped God with abundance of ceremonies, and buih the tombs, and “garnished the sepulchres of the saints,” while they killed and persecuted those that did imitate them, and hated the living saints, but honoured the dead: they were the bitterest enemies and murderers of Christ, on pretence that he was a blasphemer and a seditious enemy to Cesar and the common peace, and one that spoke against the temples: they were the greatest enemies of the Apostles, and silencers of those that preached Christ’s gospel, and persecuted them that called upon his name. And had these no need of conversion because they could say, “God is our father,” (when the devil was their father,) and that they were Abraham’s seed? And are not “hypocritical Christians, drunken Christians, fornicating Christians, carnal worldly infidel Christians,” (the contradiction is your own), “persecuting Christians, false-named, hypocritical Christians,” as bad, yea worse, as they abuse a more excellent profession?

Q. 16. Doth not the holy state of heaven require holiness in all that shall possess it? Can an unholy soul there see, and love, and praise, and delight in God for ever, and in the holy society and employment of the saints? Is he not more like a Mahometan than a Christian, that looketh for a sensual and unholy heaven?

Q. 17. What is the difference between the church and the world? Is not the church a holy society of regenerate souls? Yea, the church visible is only those that in baptism vow holiness, and profess it. Look these hypocrites in the face, and see whether they do not blush when they repeat, in the creed, “I believe in the Holy Ghost, I believe in the holy Catholic church, and communion of saints,” who shall have the “forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting.” Ask them, whether they mean holy adulterers, holy worldlings, holy perjured persons? Ask them, whether they mean a communion of saints in a tavern, in a play-house, in a gaming-house, or a jesting, stage-play communion? If the church be holy, be holy if you will be of the church. And make not the saints and their communion seem odious, either for their infirmities, or their opposition to your carnal interests or conceits.

Q. 18. Ask them, whether there be a heaven and a hell, or not? If not, why are they pretended Christians? If there be, will God send one man to heaven and another to hell, to so vast, so amazing, a difference of state, if there be no great difference between them here? If holiness no more differenced Christians from others, than hearing a sermon or saying over a prayer doth difference one from an infidel, where were the justice of God in saving some and damning others? And what were Christianity better than the religion of “Antonine, Plato, Socrates, Seneca, Cicero, Plutarch,” and others, if not much worse? Go into London streets, and, when you have talked with living prudent men, then go to the painter’s shop, and see a comely picture; and to the looking-glass, and see the appearance of each passenger in a glass, and you have somethhig like the clifterence between a holy soul and a dead and dressed formal hypocrite.

Q. 19. Ask them whether kings, and all men, make not a difference between man and man; the loyal and perfidious, the obedient and disobedient? and whether they distinguish not themselves between a friend and a foe; one that loveth them, and one that robbeth, hateth, or would kill them? And shall not the more holy God make more difference between the righteous and the wicked?

Q. 20. But, if they are dead in every point save carnal interest, ask them why they are preachers or priests? and, if conversion and holiness be a needless thing, of what use they are themselves? and why must the country be troubled with them, and pay them tithes, and owe them reverence? When these twenty questions are well answered, conclude you may be saved without conversion.

But if, poor soul, thou art fully convinced, and askest, “What shall I do to be converted?” the Lord make thee willing, and save thee from hypocrisy, and I will quickly tell thee in a few words.

1. Give not over sober thinking of these things, till thy heart be changed.

2. Come to Christ, and take him for thy Saviour, thy teacher, thy king, and he will pardon all that is past, and save thee.

3. Believe God’s love, the pardon of sin, and the everlasting joys of heaven, that thou mayest feel that all the pleasures of the world are dross in comparison of the heavenly delight of faith, and hope and holy love, and peace of conscience, and sincere obedience.

4. “Sin no more wilfully,” but forbear that which thou mayest forbear.

5. Away from temptations, occasions of sin, and evil company, and be a companion of the humble, holy, heavenly and sincere.

6. Wait on God’s Spirit in the diligent and constant use of his own means. Read, hear, meditate, pray; pray hard for that grace that must convert thee; wait thus, and thou shalt not wait in vain.

Pity, O Lord, and persuade, the souls! Let not Christ’s blood, his doctrine, his example, his Spirit, be lost unto them, and they lost for ever! Let not heaven be as no heaven to them, while they dream and doat on the shadows in this world! And, G! save this land from the greater destruction than all our late plagues, and flames, and divisions, which our sins and thy threatenings make us fear! G Lord, in thee have wo trusted, let us never be confounded!

Having thus contributed my endeavours, in this preface, to the furtherance of the design of this “excellent book,” I must tell thee, reader, that I take it for an honour to commend so mascuUne a birth unto the world. Who the author of this Treatise was, how he preached, how he died, his life and letters, lately printed, fully tell you; and I earnestly recommend the reading of them to all, but especially to ministers, not to tell them what men have here been forbidden to preach Christ’s gospel, and for what, nor what men they are that so many years have done it; but to tell you what men Christ’s minister’s should be. But say not, “he killed himself with excessive labour, therefore I will take warning and take my ease.” For, L He lived in perfect health all his days, notwithstanding all his labours, till after his long and hard imprisonment. 2. It was not the greatest labour of his times of liberty that hurt him, but his preaching, six, seven, or eight times in a week, after he was silenced, because he could not speak to all his people at once. O make not an ill use of so excellent an example; say not, like Judas, “What needs this waste?” His labour, his life, his suffering, his death, were not in vain. The ages to come, that read his life, and read his little popular Treatise, and his “Call to Archippus,” shall say they were not in vain. And, though he was cut off in the midst of his age, and his longer labours and more elaborate writings thus prevented, take thankfully this small but methodical, warm, and serious tract; read it seriously, and it cannot be but that it must do thee good.

I am one that have looked into books, sciences, and speculations of many sorts, and seriously tell thee, as a dying man, that after all my searches, and experience, I have found, that philosophical inquiries into the divine artifices and the nature of things, have, among a great number of uncertainties, a great many pretty pleasant probabilities which a holy soul can make good use of in admiring God, and may find as a lawful kind of amusement; but, in the moralities which Atheists count uncertainties, the knowledge of God and our duty, and our hopes, the doctrine and practice of holiness, temperance, charity, and justice, and the dihgent seeking and joyful hopes of life everlasting, are all the true wisdom, goodness, Drest, and comfort of a soul. Whatever be the plea, this is the satisfying certainty, the business, and the beautifying improvement of our lives.

I have done, when I have sought to remove a little scandal, which I foresaw I should sustain, wdiere himself and two of his friends, in writing the Preface to his Life, make such mention of my name, which I cannot own, because it would seem praising him for praising me. I confess it lookcth ill in mc, but I had not the powr of other men’s writings, and dared not therefore forbear that which was his due. Had I directed their pens, they should have taken a middle way, and only esteemed me a very unworthy servant of Christ, who yet longs to seethe peace and prosperity of his church; and I should have forgone their undeserved praise, as other men should have done their slanderous libels. But, if the reader get no harm by it, I assure him, the use I made of it was, to lament that I am really so much worse than they esteemed me; and fear lest I should prove yet worse than I discern myself, who see so much sin and weakness in my betters, and much more in myself, as to make it the constant sentiment of my soul, that pride of men’s greatness, wisdom, and GOODNESS, is the first part of the devil’s IMAGE on man’s soul; and darkness is the second; and MALIGNITY the third.

RICHARD BAXTER.